Description
Book SynopsisOrdered to join the Pacific Squadron in 1854, the US Navy warship Decatur sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, through the Strait of Magellan to Valparaiso, Honolulu, and Puget Sound, then on to San Francisco, Panama, and Costa Rica, while serving in the Pacific until 1859, the eve of the Civil War. This book offers a social history of the warship.
Trade Review"The U.S. Navy of the 1850s is a fascinating subject in itself, but it has never been so well integrated into the broader political, social, and cultural history of the antebellum United States. . . . Warship Under Sail illuminates the contradictions and interactions that characterize this period of American expansion. It should, therefore, be read not only by military and maritime historians, but also by scholars interested in the American West, antebellum culture, politics, and imperialism."
* The Northern Mariner *
"… this bargain-priced book is simultaneously worthy of coffee tables, research desks, and library collections…. While not a pretty picture, it reveals life aboard a warship at the end of the era of sail."
* Sea History *
"This is an excellent book for those who are interested in naval history and the Pacific Northwest in the 1850's."
* The Lone Star Review *
"She situates her study at the intersection of two growing fields of historical interest, 19th century maritime culture and the United States in the world, and makes a notable contribution to both, as well as to our understanding of the navy in the making of the Pacific Northwest."
* Pacific Northwest Quarterly *
"The richness of detail regarding the everyday life of a mid-nineteenth century sailor is undoubtedly the book's greatest strength but, McConaghy's skillful ability to bring this sailing adventure to life is equally fascinating, fun, and well, just highly entertaining."
* The Grog Ration *
"This is a marvelous book, deserving of high praise."
* The Journal of Military History *
"Warship Under Sail is an impressive piece of scholarship that provides an unsparing account of the brutality of naval life…. It was a difficult time, and McConaghy has captured the debilitating tedium and the compounded ghastliness of it all without ever succumbing to the seductive scent of salt breezes or the romance of billowed sail."
* International Journal of Maritime History *
"No matter what your background, Lorraine McConaghy's extensive research casts a new light on local and national history in the era before the Civil War while providing an intimate look at life aboard a sailing warship. It is an engrossing read that is well worth your time."
* Shavings *
"McConaghy emphatically sees all the Decatur's theaters of action through the prism of its daily routines and disruptions of routine . . . By concentrating on the foreground with such gusto, she gives you an extraordinarily vivid idea of how men under pressures of danger, drink and disease (syphilis was rampant) strived to create order out of chaos."
* Seattle Times *
"Warship Under Sail recounts the Decatur's exploits during several years of voyages in the Pacific, but is bound to join the most important works to examine Seattle's earliest history . . . . a fascinating—and factually correct—tale that transcends the more simplistic versions of the city's past."
* Crosscut.com *
"This is a rich resource, both for 19th-century American politics and the human side of ship life."
* Reference and Book News *
Table of ContentsPreface
Introduction
1. Young America on the Pacific: "The Sailor of Manifest Destiny Views"
2. The Decatur in the Old Navy: "To Command Our Own Seas and Coasts"
3. Boston: Getting Under Way
4. Episode 1. Through the Strait of Magellan: "Off to Californio!"
5. Episode 2. Seattle: "Down Came the Indians, Like so Many Demons"
6. San Francisco: "This Reckless Life"
7. Episode 3. Nicaragua: "Seeing the Elephant"
8. Episode 4. Panama: "All the Subtle Demonisms of Life and Thought"
9. The Civil War and Beyond
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
